While in Ethiopia we helped to teach English classes, attend home visits with our social workers, and helped to build a school which is now ready to start classes!We also took a two day trip to visit Nikki's World Vision sponsor child Tsehay. We stayed in Addis Ababa the capital of Ethiopia for one night and then got a 3 hour ride in the back of a truck to Tsehay's village. The drive there was amazing, we got to see a lot of the country side outside of the big city in Addis. It was amazing. When we got to the world vision office near Tsehay's office we met some of the poeple that worked there and we got a presentation on the developments they were making in the village. The World Vision staff were SO nice and happy to talk to us about the project. From there we got in the truck again and drove for about 45 minutes through some pretty rough "roads".
When we got to the village we were swarmed with excited kids and made our way to Tsehay's house. When we got there we sat around her house and talked to her family with the help of the World Vision translators. She showed us all the gifts Nikki had ever sent her, most fo which were hanging on her wall. Then her mom came out of a little tent made of blankets they had made in the corner with her baby she just had a week ago. The baby was so small and cute and Nikki gave her the blanket we had brought for the family to wrap around the baby. After talking to them and meeting there family we brought Tsehay and her brother and grandfather back to the office for lunch. Her brother ate so much food I thoguht he would explode and they were evry happy. We said our goodbyes and gave our hugs and packed back into the truck for the 3 hour drive back to Addis. That day was so much fun and it was amazing to see the actual developments that World Vision was making in the villages there and not just reading about them. From addis we headed back to our guest house in Debre Zeyit.
Tsehay's Grandfather with some sheep Nikki bought the family. He told us you bought us 2 and now we have 6!
Nikki and Tsehay
The next week and a half we helped to teach english classes to the kids. The kids were probably my favourite part of the trip. They were always so happy and excited to see us and often invited us over to their houses for Coffee. I got to help teach the kids how to write letters to their sponsors, which pretty entertaining. Some of them were really good and come up with some good ideas to tell there sponsors like what animals were in their towns and asking great questions to learn more about their sponsors lives. We also helped to build a school, which was fun we even got some help from one of our social workers! In the guest house I got to stay in a bedroom with my two roommates Misgana and Sesay and Melaku. They were three halarious boys staying at the guest house they were best friends and I got to know them pretty well. We had lots of fun on our front porch at night singing songs and having water fights.
The trip was incredible and I will never forget it. It has insipred me to want to do more, and helped me to realize there are more important things than trying to live the "American Dream". It helped me realize that this is what I want to do with my life I don't want to sit around in Canada going to work everyday and coming home to do nothing. I'm no longer trapped in our Canadian bubble, I have realized the injustices that are going on outside of our bubble all over the world. The lack of healthcare, mistreatment of children, and lack of education to help children defeat the challenges they are faced is incredible and something needs to be done about it. I wish everyone would just go one time and see the real world and what is going on outside of their lives so they can realize that there really are people out there that need help that are trapped in poverty and that they CAN do somehting about it. We have privileges that few people in our world have and we can use those to help people escape poverty.
Eshetu one of the social workers teaching letter writing.
Nikki and Tsehay
Building the school
Out on the front porch 
